A wireless communication network typically includes a plurality of gateways such as, an Access Service Network (ASN)-Gateway. Each gateway of the plurality of gateways communicates with a plurality of Base Stations (BSs) for transferring data packets, such as, Internet Protocol (IP) packets. Further, each BS of the plurality of BSs communicates with one or more Mobile Stations (MSs).
In the wireless communication network, a MS communicating with a serving BS may frequently lose a communication link with the serving BS. This may happen when a quality of a signal received by the MS from the serving BS deteriorates. To provide continuing service to a user of the MS, a new communication link may be required before the communication link with the serving BS is lost. Therefore, the MS is handed over to another BS of the plurality of BSs.
Typically, the MS is handed over to another BS whenever the quality of the signal received from the serving BS falls below a threshold value. This may lead to a situation where the MS is frequently handed over to multiple BSs that provide a signal having a quality marginally above the quality of the signal received from the serving BS. This may lead to unnecessary computation load on the wireless communication network to manage frequent handovers of the MS.
Therefore, there is a need of a method and apparatus to reduce frequent handovers of a MS.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.